Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut
Through May 10, 2026
Exhibition: “Ursula von Rydingsvard: states of becoming”
Significance: One of the most influential sculptors working today, Ursula von Rydingsvard (American, b. Germany, 1942) is renowned for her monumental cedar sculptures and labor-intensive process. “Ursula von Rydingsvard: states of becoming” surveys the last 20 years of the artist’s five-decade career, revealing themes of vulnerability and open-endedness. The exhibition is the first to explore the artist’s improvisational approach and long-standing practice of returning to sculptures or deliberately reworking them years later.
The exhibition also acknowledges von Rydingsvard’s deep roots in Connecticut, where she moved as a child when her family immigrated to the United States following World War II.
Content: “Ursula von Rydingsvard: states of becoming” features 15 powerful sculptures and wall reliefs along with a selection of 19 paper pulp works. Together, they illustrate the tensions between intuition and methodology in von Rydingsvard’s practice as well as the aesthetic and emotional power of her materials.
The exhibition also chronicles the subtle yet perceptible shift in the artist’s approach over the last 20 years. The construction of von Rydingsvard’s works has grown increasingly complex and she has repurposed parts of her sculptures with greater frequency, sometimes reconfiguring them to create an entirely new work of art. This exhibition sheds light on the unique ways in which her works come into fruition — their stages of becoming — and how the constant evolution of her ideas and practice leads to emotionally resonant and highly experimental art.
Artistic Process: Ursula von Rydingsvard has experimented with a wide variety of mediums including bronze, copper, animal intestines and polyurethane resin. Since the mid-1970s, she has worked primarily with cedar, a soft, malleable material that can be easily manipulated to produce abstract shapes. This choice of medium also evokes childhood memories of the wooden barracks at refugee camps she and her family lived in after World War II.
Von Rydingsvard’s work exemplifies technical mastery and conceptual depth. She begins each sculpture by drawing a chalk outline on the studio floor. Within this desired shape, she and her studio assistants stack four-by-four cedar beams, one plank at a time, and painstakingly cut, assemble and glue them into place. Each cumulative layer is an intuitive response to the one before. The artist has embraced intuition and feeling as fundamental elements of her practice, noting that each sculpture “is at least partially determining its own destiny.” The final sculpture often resembles geological and primordial forms found in nature, elements of the body or utilitarian objects such as shovels and bowls.
In the last two decades, von Rydingsvard has expanded her sculptural vocabulary, collaborating with the papermaking studio Dieu Donné to produce highly dimensional works cast from abaca and handmade linen paper embellished with cotton, lace, silk and other organic materials. With their soft edges and frayed threads, these pieces embody a sense of elusiveness similar to that elicited by her large-scale sculptures.
About the artist: Von Rydingsvard’s work is represented in the permanent collections of more than 40 museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Storm King Art Center and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has been the recipient of many honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in the Arts from the National Museum of Women in the Arts (2019), a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center (2014), an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1994) and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (1983) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1979, 1986). A documentary feature about the artist’s practice “Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own” was produced in 2019. She lives and works in New York City.
Quotes: “In recent years, Ursula von Rydingsvard has relied increasingly on her instinct, both in terms of the making and meaning of her work. ‘states of becoming’ explores in depth von Rydingsvard’s intuitive and iterative approach to making works in cedar and paper, revealing the constant evolution of ideas across her practice.”
— Margarita Karasoulas, curator or art, Bruce Museum.
“I am happy to show my sculptures and drawings together and see them in one space as they are in my head and to have my pieces shown in Connecticut, where I came as a small child with my family. My sculptures, my pieces, come from somewhere deep inside me. I try to not explain why I’m doing anything as I’m working — not to question the actions — and instead trust where each piece will take me and where I will take each piece.”
— Ursula von Rydingsvard
“Ursula von Rydingsvard’s sculptures and paper pulp works show us what happens when artistic practice melds open-ended curiosity and knowledge-seeking across disciplines — when years of patient experimentation with materials yield discoveries that could emerge no other way.”
— Mary-Kate O’Hare, the Susan E. Lynch director and CEO of the Bruce Museum.
Organizer: “Ursula von Rydingsvard: states of becoming” is organized by the Bruce Museum and curated by Margarita Karasoulas, curator of art, with Jordan Hillman, assistant curator.
Publication and Audio Guide: The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring contributions by Karasoulas, Nora Lawrence, Robert S. Mattison and an interview with von Rydingsvard. An audio guide in “states of becoming” features the voices of contemporary artists — including Diana Al-Hadid, Leonardo Drew, Judy Pfaff, Martin Puryear and Kiki Smith — offering personal perspectives on von Rydingsvard’s artistic legacy and influence.
Installation view of “Ursula von Rydingsvard: states of becoming” at the Bruce Museum. Photo by Joshua Simpson Photography (@joshuasimpsonphoto).
Installation view of “Ursula von Rydingsvard: states of becoming” at the Bruce Museum. Photo by Joshua Simpson Photography (@joshuasimpsonphoto).
Installation view of “Ursula von Rydingsvard: states of becoming” at the Bruce Museum. Photo by Joshua Simpson Photography (@joshuasimpsonphoto).
Installation view of “Ursula von Rydingsvard: states of becoming” at the Bruce Museum. Photo by Joshua Simpson Photography (@joshuasimpsonphoto).
Installation view of “Ursula von Rydingsvard: states of becoming” at the Bruce Museum. Photo by Joshua Simpson Photography (@joshuasimpsonphoto).
Installation view of “Ursula von Rydingsvard: states of becoming” at the Bruce Museum. Photo by Joshua Simpson Photography (@joshuasimpsonphoto).
